In the latest sign of the South Korean technology giant’s attempt to spark growth through deal-making, the world’s biggest smartphone marker by shipments said Thursday that it would buy Dacor Inc., a USA maker of luxury kitchen appliances, for an undisclosed sum.
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Yet Samsung began monitoring some toxic byproducts in the air only after a 2012 inspection detected benzene and formaldehyde – both known carcinogens – at its chip factories.
Since 2008, 56 workers have applied for occupational safety compensation from the government.
The AP reported Wednesday that in workers’ compensation cases involving at least 10 former Samsung Electronics Co. semiconductor and display plant workers with various diseases, regulators allowed Samsung to use trade-secrets concerns to block release of information about exposure to toxins.
The father of a 22-year-old woman who died of leukemia after working at a Samsung facility that manufactures computer chips for various devices tried to get a list of the chemicals she was exposed to after learning that a second worker at the same assembly line also died of leukemia. “Up to 10 years, you get compensated, a little after 10 years, you don’t”.
Compensation for industrial injury, including cancer, has been awarded in some cases, but the group of families say that other claims are being hampered because the South Korean authorities demand the details of which chemicals had caused the illnesses and deaths. Half of the other 46 claims were rejected and half remain under review.
It appears that trade secrets are more important to Samsung Electronics than the lives of its workers.
“We have to keep secrets that belong to our clients”, said Yang Won-baek.
South Korea law bars governments and public agencies from withholding corporate information needed “to protect the lives, physical safety, and health” of individuals on trade-secrets grounds, but there are no penalties for violations. It said in a statement that there was no case where information disclosure was “illegally prevented”.
“We have a right to protect our information from going to a third party, ” Baik Soo-ha, a Samsung Electronics vice-president, told the AP.
Left with few options, more than 100 families accepted a compensation plan Samsung proposed previous year, but many rejected it. “The factory particulars including the types and volumes of drugs Inch were launched for any workers compensation situation, it’s feared the technology gap with rivals both at home and overseas could be reduced and our company’s competitiveness could be decreased”.
They also say it remains hard to get details about working conditions. Kim lives in a government-subsidized apartment with her sisters. “Any contents that may not work in Samsung’s favor were deleted as trade secrets”. She said that “There was never any education (at the factory) about what kind of chemicals could be bad so that we could be more careful”.
KIM MI-SEON, 36, a former Samsung display worker who lost her sight after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. However, companies that claim the information is part of its trade secrets do not have to disclose it. Applications for government compensation that lack information about which chemicals are used are typically denied.
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Samsung issued a statement denying the allegations that it is withholding the information about the chemicals it uses from South Korean officials.
